Auntie
What on earth was that supposed to mean?
I looked at Se-ah, still turning the word over in my head—and there, in her hand, was a phone that definitely hadn't been there a few seconds ago.
"…Se-ah-chan?"
"I'll let you off the hook this once. Consider it a special favor."
She smiled sweetly, as if she were magnanimously forgiving me. I had no idea what I'd even done wrong, but… was I supposed to be grateful?
I'd been photographed without permission, and yet I wasn't actually angry. Just a little put out. And embarrassed, mostly.
"We've got a paparazzo in the house!"
"Heh heh."
My outburst didn't faze her in the slightest. If anything, a victorious little smile was blooming at the corner of her mouth.
I didn't need to see the picture to guess how it had turned out. I hadn't even noticed her taking it, so it was bound to look natural. I'd probably die of embarrassment if I actually looked at it—but setting that aside, it had probably come out well. Objectively speaking, my face these days was easily top-tier.
"Anyway, tutoring's a lost cause today."
My math had been even more catastrophic than she'd expected, and in the end even Se-ah had thrown in the towel. The bit about bringing middle-school textbooks next time hadn't sounded like a joke. …It might even have to be lower than that.
And yet, contrary to all that talk of giving up, she sank into the sofa as if she hadn't a care in the world.
"Oppa. I can stay for dinner, right?"
Of course she could. But did it have to sound that natural?
"…Mom's going to worry."
"It's fine. I'm not a little kid. Besides, I'm eating at Oppa's place—what's the problem? We're family."
Put like that, I had nothing left to say. She was right on every count. And I didn't have any real reason to turn her down, so I just nodded.
I'd have to let them know I couldn't make class today, then. I picked up my phone to send a text—and that was when Se-ah asked me something.
"Oh, right. Have you been eating properly? You never cooked at all before."
She wasn't wrong. Until I'd started living on my own, I had never really cooked. Instant ramen, by myself, was about the extent of it. Truth be told, that had still been the case until not long ago. It was only recently, once the quest had me taking cooking lessons from Master, that I'd started trying a little.
"They send side dishes from home, so I'm fine."
That was why Dad had come by yesterday in the first place—to drop off food. It had all worked out in the end, which was a relief, but I still remembered how my heart had been in my throat when I'd first gotten that call.
"Come on. That's not enough on its own. Or is it? Anyway, I'll cook tonight! That's okay, right?"
"Mochiron."
Of course it was okay. I was a disaster in the kitchen; Se-ah, being the complete package that she was, even cooked well. In a word, she was perfect first-place bride material.
"What do you want to eat?"
"Hmm…"
I closed my eyes, rested my chin on my hand, and sank into thought. What would be good? What did I actually want right now?
Dish after dish flickered through my mind—the kind of food that made your mouth water and your stomach growl just from thinking about it. And among them, one menu item rose up with startling clarity. The shock of it was like the first time color television arrived in a black-and-white world.
"Sushi!"
"…Huh? Sushi?"
Se-ah looked briefly thrown by my choice, as if that was the last word she'd expected to hear. I couldn't clearly explain why sushi, of all the countless things I could have named, had been the one to surface. Maybe it was because of the sushi we'd had for dinner after shopping together not long ago. Se-ah seemed to have arrived at more or less the same conclusion.
"The sushi we had last time was really good. Hmm… Should we just order delivery, then?"
"That's not a bad idea. Delivery is easy. Delivery is great!"
I agreed a little too enthusiastically, and Se-ah gave me a look that was distinctly suspicious.
"…You're not ordering delivery every single day, are you?"
"Th-there's no way! Watashi cooks just fine on her own, I'll have you know!"
I waved my hands in denial. If I were being honest, there had been a stretch not long ago when I really had been living on delivery every day, exactly as she'd said. But that wasn't now. That counted, right?
"You sure?"
"Sonna… You don't trust your Oppa?"
"It's not that. I'm worried. If all you eat is delivery, it's going to wreck your health."
"Watashi is daijoubu."
I kept insisting I was fine, and at last Se-ah nodded and let it go.
"Alright. I'll order a sushi set for two. Anything you particularly want? If not, I'll just get the assorted platter."
"Hai!"
Assorted sushi. Perfect. It had the air of a guardian keeping the balance, never letting any one item hog the spotlight. That was nonsense, of course. When you're hungry, every menu looks good. And wasn't that only natural? Business exists to sell people things and make a profit. Of course they only sell food that makes your mouth water just from reading the name. There were a handful of exceptions—mint chocolate, Hawaiian pizza—but still.
"Okay. Ordered."
Ding-dong!
The doorbell rang at the exact same moment she said it.
"It's here!"
"There's no way!"
I was already charging off to greet the sushi when Se-ah caught me by the scruff of the neck and yanked me to a halt.
"Please use your brain for one second! Does delivery arrive one second after you place the order?!"
"Hiiing…"
But if it wasn't the delivery person, who else would even be coming to our place?
"Was anyone else supposed to come today besides me?"
"Nope."
"Hmm… Let's check first, at least."
Following her advice, I calmly used the intercom to see who it was. Nobody showed up on the screen. This was starting to feel like déjà vu…
I picked up the intercom handset and spoke carefully.
"…Moshi moshi?"
"How is anyone supposed to understand you if you say it like that."
"Everyone understands me, though."
"Speak Korean."
"Hait…"
Chided by my little sister, I asked again in a slightly deflated voice.
"Who is it?"
"Delivery's here."
See? I was right! Se-ah was wrong and I was right!! I couldn't contain my joy. I bounced in place as I crowed at her.
"See?! I told you! It's the delivery person!"
"That's impossible! …Wait."
Se-ah snatched the handset from me and interrogated the caller in a voice gone ice-cold.
"This is the boneless fried chicken, right?"
"Yes!"
"……"
The self-proclaimed delivery person had walked straight into Se-ah's trap. The look she shot me said, loud and clear, I knew it.
"I think you might have the wrong address. We never ordered chicken."
"No we didn't!"
"…Excuse me. Are you actually a delivery person?"
No face on the screen, and the food was completely wrong. Se-ah had even tossed them an easy out—wrong address—and they were still clinging to this suspicious story. If that didn't set off alarm bells, something would have been wrong with you.
Then Se-ah gave a tiny shudder, as if she'd just stumbled onto some enormous truth. Her pupils blew wide. She'd clearly caught a vital fact she'd been missing.
"…You. Your voice is extremely suspicious."
"……"
At Se-ah's accusation, the voice on the other end went silent. I felt like I was watching a detective drama in VR, right up close. If only I'd had popcorn to season the suspense!
"Be honest. …Who are you?"
I was dying to know how this mystery would end, but I couldn't just sit there and watch. The longer this went on, the more embarrassed our sweet little sister was going to be. I went straight to the front door and opened it.
"Huh…? Wait! Don't! Oppa, get behind me!"
The sudden, completely unexpected variable made Se-ah nearly jump out of her skin. She'd already decided the person outside was an armed robber. That said, the fact that she was still worrying about me in the middle of all that was actually kind of touching.
There was nothing to worry about, though. I'd suspected it from the moment I looked at the intercom screen, and the voice had confirmed it.
I looked at the guest standing in the hallway and smiled kindly.
"Hello there, Nashi-chan!"
"Chicken delivery!"
Little Hana was holding something in her hands. It was the chicken I had ordered before—and, due to a certain incident, never gotten to eat.
Se-ah muttered as she looked at the child sitting across from her.
"So it was the kid from next door…"
A flush of secondhand embarrassment crept up her face. If she'd just stayed calm and thought it through, she would have realized in a second that it wasn't a dangerous situation. Setting everything else aside, the voice alone should have told her it belonged to a little girl who posed no threat whatsoever.
Admitting she'd gotten far too worked up, Se-ah asked the child,
"Hi. Unnie's Lee Se-ah."
"I'm Bae Hana!"
"…Hana?"
She glanced at Oppa, and got a sheepish smile in return. Same name as the neighbor. What a funny coincidence.
"Did you come over to eat the chicken together?"
"Yeah!"
"That's sweet. Op— I mean, you must be close with our Unnie, huh?"
"Unnie?"
Little Hana looked back and forth between Se-ah and Oppa, and Se-ah answered with a bright smile.
"Yep. I'm Unnie's little sister. We're family."
"Ahhh."
"So you can call me whatever's comfortable too, Hana."
Oppa was wonderful, of course. Well—physically speaking, she was Unnie now. Anyway, Oppa was great, but Se-ah had sometimes thought it might be nice to have a little sister of her own. So never mind that the process was a little weird: a cute little sister dropping into her life was always welcome.
Fortunately, Hana seemed to like Se-ah too. She called her comfortably, just as she'd been told, with a bright smile.
"Auntie!"
"…Huh? Wait, why am I Auntie? I'm not even twenty yet. Don't call me Auntie. Call me Unnie."
"Okay! Auntie!"
"……"
Se-ah's brow furrowed at the unwelcome title—then a good idea struck her, and she tried it at once.
"No, wait. Instead of Auntie, can you try calling me the way you call our Unnie?"
"…Our Unnie?"
"Yeah. Here, Hana. This person sitting right here. What do you call her?"
She pointed at Oppa beside her, and at last Hana seemed to understand. Relieved that it had landed, Se-ah simply waited for the answer.
And then—
"…Time out."